BASIC INFORMATION

Name of Principal Investigator:

Dr. Adams Bodomo

Faculty/Department/Centre:

Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts

Name of Co-investigator (if any):

Dr. K. K. Luke, Department of Linguistics, HKU

Dr. A. Anttila, New York University

Project Title:

The Use of Information Technology in Teaching Language and Linguistics Courses

Project Objective:

As Hong Kong and the world at large move deeper and deeper into the information age, two important types of knowledge stand out as very crucial for a relevant education of the youth - computer literacy and linguistic skills.

The objective of this project is to integrate these two important aspects of the information age by encouraging the use of computers in our teaching and tutoring programmes at the Department of Linguistics, University of Hong Kong.

PROGRESS OF PROJECT

The following is my brief report (additional information will be provided on request) on:

a.        Activities organized or findings of the project during this reporting period (Please indicate the rough % of project completion)

Percentage of project completion:

100%

Project Activities:

1)      Computerized Linguistics Courses

The following courses under the project have been computerized to various degrees, using WebCT.

2) Publications

Bodomo, A. B. 2002. Linguistics.com: Evaluating Language Resources on the Internet. In: Reflecting on Language in Education, edited by V. Crew, C. Davison, and B. Mak. Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Institute of Education. pps. 153-167.

Bodomo, A., K. K. Luke, and A. Anttila. 2002. IT for the Teaching of Languages and Linguistics. A CD-ROM documentation. The University of Hong Kong.

Bodomo, A., K. K. Luke, and A. Anttila. 2001. Evaluating interactivity in web-based learning. Conference on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, organized by University Grants Committee funded institutions 24^th-26^th May, 2001, Hong Kong.
URL: http://www.hku.hk/caut/scholar/abstracts/104_bodomo.htm

Bodomo, A. 2001. Interactivity in web-based courses. On-line Proceedings of the Asia Pacific WebCT 2001 Conference, 9-11 April 2001, Adelaide, Australia.
URL: http://www.tafe.sa.edu.au/top/webctconf/index.html

Bodomo, A. B. forthcoming. The Conversation Learning Community: A Conceptual Framework for Web-based Design and Delivery of Language and Linguistics Courses, Common Ground Publishing, Altona - Victoria, Australia.

3)   Presentations

Bodomo, A., K. K. Luke, and A. Anttila. 2001. Evaluating interactivity in web-based learning. Conference on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, organized by University Grants Committee funded institutions 24^th-26^th May, 2001, Hong Kong.

Bodomo, A. 2001. Interactivity in Web-based courses. Asia Pacific WebCT 2001 conference. 9-11 April 2001, Adelaide, Australia.

Bodomo, A. 2000. Interactivity in Web-based (Distance Education) Courses, GhaCLAD 2000, 26th - 29th July, Ghana Computer Literacy & Distance Education Conference, Accra, Ghana.

Bodomo, A. 2000. Interactivity in Web-based Teaching of Linguistics Courses, IT Fiesta, 9th June, Centre for Information Technology in School and Teacher Education (CITE), University of Hong Kong.

4) Demonstrations

Web-based teaching of Linguistics courses. JUPAS Open Day, 14^th October, 2000, University of Hong Kong. Mounted by Dr. A. Bodomo with assistance from Ms. Carmen Lee.

Interactivity in Web-based Teaching of a Course on Language and Literacy, IT Fiesta 2000, 7th June, University of Hong Kong. Mounted by Dr. A. B. Bodomo with assistance from Ms Carmen Lee and Ms Sophia Lee.

5) Project Website: http://www.hku.hk/linguist/staff/TDGBodomo.html

6)   Award: Certificate of Merit, IT in Education Awards Programme, HKU

b.        The impact of these activities/findings to improvement of teaching and learning

(Please give evidence where appropriate)

We believe the project has had a positive impact on students. This may be seen in a number of ways:

i.      improved interaction between students and teacher and among students;

ii.    increased initiative, which is an essential ingredient in a world of innovation;

iii.  critical thinking: students became more reflective and critical about their subject during discussions on WebCT and in the classroom.

Evidence for the above points can be deduced from:

(i)                   the logon statistics on our course homepages, average number of messages posted and read:

WebCT logon statistics:: LING2011: total no. of hits: 2780, average no. of hits: 139, Average no. of messages posted and read:

LING2041: average no. of msgs posted: 5, average no. of msgs read: 121 (out of 208)

(ii)                 the contents of the messages posted

An excerpt from the discussion board of LING2041:

Subject: Problems when using educational technology

Posted by xxx
Mon Mar 11, 2002 22:00

Apart from the three points in the lecture notes, I would like to propose another problem language professions may face when using educational technology:There may be a mismatch between the investment and the use of education technology. I am thinking of the secondary schools in HK. The CE Mr Tung is yearning for IT-enhanced education, and then hardware/software are installed in secondary schools. But such plan may not take into account the adequacy of IT training for the teachers and most importantly, the schools' curriculum development of various subjects may not be able to catch up with such vast investmant. To what extent the secondary school teachers (actually this problem is not just addressed to language professions) should use IT in their teaching is a problem.

 

(iii)               the comments of students in official end of course evaluations, some of which are shown below:

e.g. revised completion date

(Please state reasons)

Not many changes: emphasis has been placed on the web-based course development aspects while the issue of developing tools for linguistic analysis has been de-emphasized as this will need much more funding than the project has received.

Project Expenditure

Account Code:

       10100135.30836.04800.304.01

Award of Grant (HK$):

HKD 150 000

Statement of account of how the grant was used (Please indicate the rough % of total budget spent)

About HKD140 000 (roughly 90% of total budget) was spent on research support staff salary to help with computerizing courses for delivery on WebCT, and for formatting papers/posters for seminar presentations and demonstrations. The rest was spent on equipment and general expenses.